The Way Back to You
by LayKay
Summary: With Fiona at university in New York and Adam in Degrassi, they struggle to keep their long distance relationship working.  Sequel to When In Rome.  Mostly Adam/Fiona some... others. M for sexual content. Complete!
1. Chapter 1

AN: this is part three in a series that includes my stories All We Are and When In Rome. I _highly_ suggest reading When In Rome before you read this, because so much happened in that story that will be mentioned in this story.

**The Way Back to You**

**Chapter 1**

"Are you sure you don't want me to go with you to the airport?" Adam asked as he closed the trunk of the taxi. He turned to Fiona, who was standing on the curb next to him.

"I'm sure," she told him. "If you're there, I won't get on the plane."

He sighed then nodded, taking a step away from her. "Call me when you get settled."

"As soon as I get off the plane," she promised. She kissed him then hugged him tightly. "I love you," she whispered.

"Love you," he said, holding her just as tight. He slowly released her and she stepped away from him, getting in the cab. "I'll see you soon?" he asked as he leaned in the window, wishing he could prolong their goodbyes, but they'd already stretched their time together as far as they could. Her belongs had already been shipped to her home in New York and her classes were starting in a week.

She nodded and kissed him again. "Soon."

He stepped back as the taxi pulled away. Fiona looked out the back window and waved as the taxi disappeared.

0o-0o-0o-0o

Adam sat at a table at The Dot with Clare and Eli. Clare watched her friend with worried eyes as he stared at his cell phone, waiting for it to ring.

"Her plane should have landed by now," he mumbled.

"Relax, man," Eli said. "If it crashed, we would have heard about it."

Clare hit him in the arm while Adam glared at him.

"What?" the older boy demanded.

Adam rolled his eyes, shaking his head as he looked back down at his phone.

The table fell silent as the trio looked at the silent phone.

"I wonder if I can blow it up with my mind," Eli mumbled, narrowing his eyes slightly.

Clare hit him again.

"Why are you so violent today?"

Adam ignored them as he bit his fingernail. He grabbed the phone and pressed a button to make sure it still worked. He sighed and put it back on the table when the screen lit up.

Eli checked his watch and sighed. "Come on, Fiona," he whispered under his breath. He'd never seen Adam so anxious.

Finally his cell phone rang. All three of them jumped and Adam quickly picked up the phone, fumbling with the buttons before pressing the talk button. "Hello?" he asked breathlessly, holding the phone to his ear.

"Hey."

He smiled when he heard his fiancée's voice. "Hey. I was starting to get worried."

"Starting?" Eli asked, moving quickly away from Clare before she could swing at him again.

"Sorry," Fiona said. "My parents took me out for an early dinner. We just got back."

He smiled. "It's ok." He stood from the table and walked out of the tiny restaurant. "I miss you," he said as he sat on the curb.

He heard her sigh. "I miss you too," she said, then she laughed.

"What?"

"We've only been apart for a few hours."

He smiled sadly. "I know. I wonder if it'll ever get easier." After a short pause, he answered himself. "Doubt it."

"Probably not," she said at the same time he spoke.

* * *

Fiona rolled over in her bed. She had pillows piled up next to her to even out the space she had to move in. She kicked one and it fell off the bed. She instantly laughed, she would sometimes kick him as she slept. He would kick back. Oddly, it made her miss him more.

She rolled over to check her clock. It was past midnight, too late to call him. Frowning, she crawled out of her bed and got her laptop from her desk, hoping for some kind of distraction. She walked back to her bed with it and laid down, propping it on her legs.

She logged onto Skype and noticed he was online. She smiled as she clicked his screen name.

"Hey," he said when his picture popped on to her screen, looking surprised to see her.

"Hi." She smiled broadly. "What are you doing awake?"

He shrugged. "Not tired. You?"

"My bed's too big," she said with a sigh.

He smiled. "Lay down," he told her. "I'll talk to you until you fall asleep."

"You don't have to."

"I know. Lay down."

She smiled and pushed the pillows off the side of her bed, resting her computer next to her as she laid down.

"Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess named Fiona…"

to be continued...

AN: and there was chapter 1. As always, it might (and probably will) get a rating boost at some point. Every chapter will probably be laid out like this, with the "line break" switching locations.


	2. Chapter 2

**The Way Back to You**

**Chapter 2**

Fiona opened her eyes, seeing her computer sitting next to her, the screen now black. She'd fallen asleep listening to Adam's voice, then dreamt about him. When she opened her eyes, she expected to see him, not her computer.

Tears stung at her eyes as she snapped the screen shut. She grabbed her phone to check her messages, a voicemail alert with Adam's number popped up on screen.

She smiled as she pushed the button to listen to it. "Good morning, princess," he began. "As promised, this your morning wakeup call but, surprise, you're not awake. I guess ten o'clock is too early for you."

Fiona laughed as Adam rambled on. She checked her clock, it was well past noon.

"I'd hate to cut your beauty sleep short. Not that you need it, but I guess I did keep you up late last night. Call me back later. I love you."

She smiled as she lowered the phone from her ear. She quickly dialed Adam's number and listened as it rang. She sighed when it went to voicemail.

"Hey," his voice said. "This is Adam. You know the drill."

She sighed. "Why do I have a feeling this is going to turn into a never ending game of phone tag? I know you've been up for about two hours and school hasn't started back yet. I guess you're with Eli and Clare. Sorry I missed you. Twice. Call me."

She hung up her phone. In seconds, it was ringing again and Adam's picture was on her display. She smiled as she answered the call. "Hey."

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I didn't hear my phone. It was on the other side of the room and I…"

She laughed. "Adam," she said, interrupting him.

"Hi," he said. "How did you sleep?"

"Fine, after story time. How about you?"

"I didn't. I was up until about three listening to you snore, then I guess your computer went dead and I stayed up… thinking about you."

"I don't snore," she said defensively.

"Only when you're on your back," he told her.

"I do not!"

He laughed. "It's not that bit of a deal. It's cute. You whistle."

"It's cute? Adam, snoring is not cute."

"Someday I'll video tape you snoring and you'll see."

"Do it and I'll kill you," she warned.

He laughed again. "Yes, dear."

She smiled. "So what are your plans for today?"

"I don't know. Clare and Eli are going out tonight and I really don't wanna be the third wheel. I'll probably just stay home and watch a movie."

"Which one?"

"Probably Inception."

"Of course." Her eyes went to her entertainment unit. "Actually, do you still have that copy of Lost in Translation I gave you?"

He groaned. "Yes."

"Put it on," she told him as she got the movie off her shelf and put it in her DVD player.

"Why?"

"Because I'm gonna watch it with you."

"Alright." She heard him shuffle around his room, laughing when she heard a stack of movies topple over. "Ok, I found it. Now, want to explain to me how we're gonna watch this together when we're hundreds of miles apart?"

"Stay on the phone. We'll start it at the same time. It'll be like we're watching it together." She sat back on her bed, looking at a picture on her nightstand of them kissing near the Trevi Fountain during their summer in Italy.

"Except we're not. My favorite thing about watching movies with you is holding you."

She smiled. "Yeah, that's my favorite part too. We have to work with what we have, right?"

"I guess," he said, sadness evident in his voice. "Ready?"

"Yeah. Press play."

To be continued…


	3. Chapter 3

**The Way Back to You**

**Chapter 3**

"Package came for you, bro." Drew told Adam as the younger boy entered the kitchen went to the refrigerator and pulled out a carton of orange juice.

Adam looked at the box on the table before taking a drink from the carton and putting it back in the fridge.

"It's from Fiona," Drew said as his brother began walking away. He laughed when Adam raced back to the kitchen and sat down at the table, nearly missing the seat.

He tore the box open and first found a note written in Fiona's hand writing.

_Happy birthday! Sorry I'm not there. _

_Your gift might seem weird at first, but I just don't want you to forget me. I know, you're probably reading this thinking "that's not possible" but I don't want to risk it._

He smiled. That was exactly what he was thinking.

_I have a couple of your t-shirts that help me get through the night, you have nothing. Spray this on your pillow._

He looked into the box and saw a small bottle of her perfume. He pulled it out and held it in his hand as he continued reading her letter. He loved the smell of her perfume. It would be nice to have his pillow smell like her again.

_It's small, so it will only get you through a couple months. But that's all you need because I'll be home in November for a few days. Maybe I'll refresh your supply then._

_I'll talk to you later. I love you._

_Fiona._

He smiled again. Her home was in New York, where her family was, yet she still referred to Degrassi as home. "It's my favorite place in the world," she'd told him once. "It has my favorite person."

Behind him, Drew snickered when he saw the tiny bottle in Adam's hand. "Perfume? Dude, has she gotten the memo that you're a guy?"

Adam rolled his eyes. "She just wants me to have something to remember her by."

"I know when Bianca's not around and I need something to remember her by, I just look at this picture." Drew pulled a nude picture of his girlfriend up on his phone and showed it to his brother.

"Dude, I don't wanna see that." Adam swatted the phone away. "Put that away." He hated that his brother was dating the girl who used to torment him, he didn't want to be reminded of it every day. Especially his birthday.

Drew smirked and looked at the picture for a moment before putting his phone back into his pocket. He patted his brother's shoulder. "Enjoy your present," he said with a chuckle as he walked away.

Adam shook his head. He picked up the box to throw it away and noticed something else on the bottom of the box. He pulled out the large envelope. _Something else to get you through the night _was written on the front in Sharpie.

He opened the envelope and pulled out the picture it held, his eyes widened and he smiled as he looked at it. Bianca had nothing on Fiona.

0o-0o-0o-0o

"Happy birthday," Adam heard behind him as he got his books from his locker, he turned to find Eli and Clare. Clare held out a small package.

"I told you guys, no presents."

"No extravagant presents," Clare corrected him. "We both chipped in for this."

Adam looked at Eli, who shrugged. He tore the paper off, his jaw dropping when he saw the video game. "Dude! Modern Warfare 3? I thought this was sold out everywhere."

"Yeah, well pre-order and standing in line at midnight kind of fixes that problem," Eli said.

"You went out at midnight to get this for me?"

Eli shrugged. "I thought Clare would let me play it."

"Game night tonight?" Adam asked. Eli smiled and responded by high-fiving his friend.

The bell rang, Clare kissed Eli quickly before leaving to go to her class. "Now that it's just us," Eli said quickly, turning back to Adam. "Do I finally get to hear what went down with you and Fiona in Italy?"

Adam smiled and shook his head, closing his locker as he began walking away. "A gentleman doesn't kiss and tell."

To be continued…


	4. Chapter 4

**The Way Back to You**

**Chapter 4**

Adam looked at the clock in his room. It was almost time for his video chat with Fiona. He sat in front of his computer, watching the minutes tick by. He hated that they now had to have a schedule: 8 am wake up calls from him before he left for school in the morning, she would call at 10 every night to say goodnight. Every Wednesday at 7 they would chat on Skype.

Sometimes their schedules would be too busy for their Wednesday chat. There were some mornings he over slept and didn't have time to call her before he left the house to catch his bus, and there were a few times she had been too bogged down with homework to call him.

They'd both promised in emails to be home at 7 this Wednesday.

Adam watched as his computer clock hit seven. Then seven oh-one. Seven oh-two.

By the time seven ten rolled around, he sighed and moved his mouse to log out. Then he saw her screen name.

"Sorry I'm late," she said as she popped onto his screen.

He smiled. "It's alright. Better late than never."

"So, what have you been up to today?"

He shrugged. "School. Working out."

"Let's see the bicep."

He smiled, pushing his sleeve up and flexing his arm muscle.

"Looking good," she told him. He'd kept her updated on his progress since he began taking testosterone. So far, the most obvious change was his muscles. She knew that had nothing to do with the hormones. That was all Adam.

"When do I get to see the stomach?" she teased.

He sighed and slowly stood. He lifted his t-shirt to expose his stomach. She noticed a small six pack beginning to form, though his rather obvious curves took away from the effect he was going for.

"Someday it'll look better," he told her as he sat down again.

"It looks good now."

"Someday it'll look better," he said again.

"Good." She smiled. "I want you in tip-top shape for the wedding."

"I'll keep doing crunches then."

* * *

"Fiona!"

She smiled at the familiar voice as she walked toward her next class. She turned to find a boy from her art history class running towards her.

"Hey, Nate." She automatically pulled a notebook from her bag and handed it to him. "We've got to stop meeting like this."

Nate shrugged. "You're a life saver, Fi," he said gratefully as he took her notes.

"Maybe if you'd actually show up for class, you wouldn't need your life saved. We're only in the third week and you've already missed two classes." She reached up on instinct to brush some of his hair from his eyes.

He smiled, his light green eyes sparkling as he looked at her. "Good thing the class meets three times a week then. So, technically, I've been to three times as many classes as I've missed."

Fiona rolled her eyes, then smiled. "Copy them and give them back to me. I expect you to be in class on Friday," she told him sternly.

He nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

"I'm serious, Nate. If you keep missing class you're gonna fail. You're only allowed to miss three more sessions."

"Ok, ok," he laughed. "Chill. I'll be in class. Now, onto more important matters, how can I ever repay you for single-handedly saving my academic career?"

"I'm sure you'll think of something." She touched his shoulder gently as she walked away from him.

To be continued…


	5. Chapter 5

**The Way Back to You**

**Chapter 5**

Adam's doorbell rang as he sat on the couch, playing the video game Clare and Eli had gotten him for his birthday. "Mom, doorbell!" he called.

She didn't appear to answer the door and after a moment the doorbell rang again. He groaned and paused his game, then got off the couch to answer the door.

His face lit up when he saw Fiona standing on his porch with a suitcase. Before she had a chance to speak, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her deeply.

She smiled as he pulled away. "Hey," she said breathlessly.

"Hi," he laughed. "What are you doing here?"

"My Monday class got canceled. Long weekend. I got on the first plane out here."

He smiled. "Missed me, huh?"

"You have no idea," she told him.

"Yeah, I think I do." He pulled her in for another kiss.

"Ahem!" They broke apart quickly when a throat cleared behind them. They both turned to see his mother standing in the foyer, her arms crossed.

Adam quickly wiped Fiona's lipstick off his mouth with the back of his hand. "How long have you been standing there?"

Audra sighed. "Long enough. It's quite a surprise to see you, Fiona," she said, trying to keep her voice neutral, but a bit of venom still pierced her words.

Adam rolled his eyes, glaring at his mom. He opened his mouth to speak, but Fiona put her hand on his shoulder.

"Thank you, Mrs. Torres. It's very nice to see you again."

Audra blinked. Fiona certainly wasn't the silly teenager who had shown up drunk at the pitch for Vegas Night anymore. She was now a posed young woman, who, Audra knew from experience, would take anything thrown at her.

The older woman watched as Fiona whispered in Adam's ear, making him smile. She hadn't seen Adam smile like that in months, since Fiona had left.

"You can't stay outside all day," Audra finally said. "Come in."

Adam picked up her suitcase and took it into the house, Fiona close behind him.

"How long will you be in town?" Audra asked.

"Just for the weekend."

"And where will you be staying?"

Fiona opened her mouth to respond, but Adam spoke first. "She's staying here, Mom. Or I can go to her hotel with her."

"Adam," Fiona began in a warning tone, though his mother was nodding.

"Go help her get settled."

Adam blinked in surprise. He hadn't expected to win this one so easily. "Ok. Thanks." He picked up Fiona's suitcase again and took her hand as he led her up the stairs.

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" he asked as they entered his bedroom and he closed the door.

"I wanted to surprise you," she told him as she put her arms around his shoulders. She noticed they had broadened slightly.

"Good surprise."

She smiled, running her hands down his arms. "How long have you been working out?" she asked, running her fingers across his bicep.

He shrugged. "About six hours a day since school started."

"Someone's gonna be ripped."

He smiled and shrugged again. "Yeah, well, I have a lot of… pent up energy."

"Right." She knew the testosterone injections had caused an increase in his sex drive, so it was only natural that he throw himself into another physical activity.

He wasn't the only one who needed distractions. Fiona's nights in New York were lonely and she often spent the night focusing on homework. She had friends in New York and went to parties sometimes, but seeing other couples making out in a dark corner made her miss him more.

He leaned forward to kiss her again. When her hands left his arms and drifted toward his chest, he quickly broke away from her. His chest had always been a no fly zone.

"What's wrong?" she asked as he walked over to his bed and sat down.

"They didn't just disappear, Fiona," he whispered.

She sighed as she moved to sit next to him. "When are you getting the surgery?"

He shrugged. "We don't really have the money right now. I mean, it's pretty expensive and insurance doesn't cover it."

"Let me help," she said quickly.

He blinked. "What?"

"With the surgery," she told him. "Let me help pay for it."

He didn't speak for a moment as he looked at her. He swallowed hard, taking her hand. "I can't ask you to do that."

"You didn't. Adam, it affects me too. I've been thinking about this for a while. After all you've given me, it's the least I can do."

"I haven't given you anything," he whispered.

She shook her head, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and giving him a tiny squeeze. "You gave me everything."

0o-0o-0o-0o

When Fiona woke the next morning, she heard the sound of Adam grunting. She sat up and saw him in the floor, doing crunches next to the bed.

"You're loud."

He smiled, as he did a few more reps then stood up. "Sorry." He sat on the bed, his hair sticking to his forehead.

He kissed her, pushing her gently back onto the bed. She pushed him away as he laid down, half on top of her. "Ew, Adam. You're all sweaty."

"What? You don't like it?" He ran one hand through his damp hair, making it stand up at odd angles. He wiped his hand on his shirt, then shook his head, making beads of sweat fly towards her.

"Gross!" She quickly jumped away from him as he reached for her. "Go take a shower," she demanded.

He smiled, leaning towards her once more. "One kiss?"

She smiled as well. "Hands where I can see them."

He complied as he leaned forward again. She gave him a quick peck on the lips before moving quickly away. "Shower," she told him. "Now."

He smirked as he pushed himself off of the bed. "Yes, princess."

To be continued…

AN: surprise happy!Fadam chapter! I know you're all already worried about Nate. Calm down and put the guns away. Clearly, she's still crazy about Adam.

I've really been on a roll with this story. Five chapters posted in three days! I doubt I'll be able to keep up with this schedule. I need to sleep someday.


	6. Chapter 6

**The Way Back to You**

**Chapter 6**

"Grams is coming tomorrow night for your birthday, by the way."

Adam nearly choked on his eggs as his head shot up to look at his mother. "What?"

"We're going to have dinner tomorrow at Little Miss."

Adam opened his mouth then closed it again, shaking his head. "And it had to be the weekend Fiona's here?"

"We didn't know Fiona was going to be here, Adam. Grams told us she was coming weeks ago and…" Audra was cut short when Adam spoke.

"What do you mean weeks?" he demanded. "Why didn't I know about this?"

"You were so upset when Fiona left…"

Adam shook his head, pushing back from the table as he stood. He looked at Drew, who had kept his head down. "Did you know about this?"

Drew didn't look up. Adam rolled his eyes. "Perfect," he mumbled as he walked out of the kitchen. He went upstairs and into his bedroom.

Fiona's hair was still wet from her shower, she was wearing one of his shirts and a pair of jeans ready for a simple day of lounging around the house with him. "What's wrong?" she asked as soon as she saw his face.

He leaned back against the door, closing his eyes briefly before he looked at her. "Wanna meet my grandma?"

0o-0o-0o-0o

"Ok, let's go," Adam said as he joined his family in the living room.

"Finally." Audra looked at Adam, who was holding onto Fiona's hand. Her engagement ring was in full view. "Adam," his mother said with a sigh.

He automatically shook his head. "We talked about this. Me and Fiona, we're kind of a packaged deal now. You want one of us, you get both of us."

Audra looked at her son for a long moment before sighing again. She turned to her husband and older son. "Let's go."

As the other three Torres' left the house, Fiona turned to her boyfriend and straightened the collar of his shirt. "Are you sure you don't want me to just stay here?"

He blinked. "What? Why?"

"Your grandma just found out about… you a few months ago. Do you really want to pile on with a new fiancée?"

"Yes," he said without giving her question any thought. "I've been living in a shadow my whole life. For the first time in… ever, I'm actually happy. Really happy. I'm done hiding."

She smiled, leaning her forehead against his. "Screw what everyone else thinks, right?"

"Right." He kissed her quickly then took her hand again. "Come on. It's time to meet your future grandmother-in-law."

0o-0o-0o-0o

"Your grandma hates me," Fiona said as she fell onto Adam's bed.

"She does not," he told her as he closed the door and sat next to her.

"Adam, she hardly said two words to me during dinner."

"It was more than she said to me for weeks," he told her, shrugging. "She's just not a big talker sometimes."

"Well, now I know where you get it," she teased, bumping his shoulder gently with hers.

"I wish you didn't need to go back tomorrow," he whispered.

"I know. Me too. But I'll be back in November."

He rolled his eyes. "For four days."

"At least it's something. Christmas will be here before you know it. My classes end on December fifteenth, then I'll be back…"

"For three weeks. Then it's back to school until spring break."

She sighed. "We knew this wasn't going to be easy."

"I know," he whispered, looking down at his lap. "I didn't expect to miss you this much."

"Well, I can't say I'm surprised," she teased. When he didn't smile, she put an arm around him. "I promise, I'll visit as much as I can. And you can always come to New York."

Adam looked at her sideways, raising his eyebrows. "Fly out Friday night, stay for one day then go back Sunday morning?" He shook his head. "If anything, it's just gonna make me miss you more. If that's even possible."

She sighed. "If we talk to your mom, maybe she'll let you skip a day or two of school."

He laughed. "Have you met my mom?"

"Well, you need to see the place you'll be going in two years, right? You just so happen to have your own personal tour guide to everything FIT."

He smiled. "Right."

"She can't not let you come to see campus."

"And it just so happens that campus also includes you."

"That's really just an added perk."

"Or the main deciding factor," he said with a quick shrug.

She smiled. "Good to know I've made an impact."

"Yeah, just a little bit of one." The sadness in his voice, even when he was teasing, made her frown.

"Well, you know, there's really no reason we need to dwell on this tonight. I mean, we're together and complaining about missing each other when we're sitting right next to each other seems kind of counter-intuitive, right?"

He smiled as he turned his head to look at her. "Yeah, you're right."

"I do have my moments." She kissed him quickly. "I do have another brilliant idea."

He smiled again. "Which is?"

"Make the most of tonight," she told him, leaning in to kiss him again.

To be continued…

AN: official rating for this story is T. I'm thinking it's going to stay that way. I already skimped out on their first night back together, so the love scenes will pretty much be "fade to black".


	7. Chapter 7

AN: there's a short twitter conservation at the beginning of this. I'll explain what all the symbols mean at the end of the chapter

**The Way Back to You**

**Chapter 7**

**FiFiCoyne: back in NYC. Already missing *FunAdam :(**

Adam smiled when he saw Fiona's tweet on his computer. It had been sent several hours ago, but he was in school.

**FunAdam: miss u too *FiFiCoyne. Can't wait till ur in my arms again  
**

He watched as his twitter feed updated.

**FiFiCoyne: *FunAdam yes! ASAP! #longdistancesucks**

He smiled again as he typed a response to her.

**FunAdam: *FiFiCoyne agreed #longdistancesucks**

He sat back, waiting for another tweet from Fiona. He heard his computer chime and updated his browser. There was a new tweet from her, but it wasn't addressed to him.

**FiFiCoyne: thanks *JustNate. I can always count on u! LOL**

Adam stared at the tweet for a long moment before moving his mouse to hover over the unfamiliar username. He hesitated before clicking the name and going to the stranger's profile. He found the tweet that had been sent to Fiona.

**JustNate: *FiFiCoyne u know where to find me when u get lonely at night ;) #longdistancesucks **

Jealousy quickly built up inside of Adam and he snapped the lid of his laptop shut. He released a slow breath, trying to convince himself that it was perfectly innocent flirtation.

He slowly opened his laptop screen again as he tried to convince himself that's all this was. When Nate's twitter profile popped back up, he quickly closed the browser without looking at it. He quickly logged onto Skype and noticed she was logged on.

He clicked her name and tried to calm himself down. She would know as soon as she looked at him something was wrong.

"Hey, you," she said after a moment, her face appearing on her screen.

"Hey." Instead of looking at his screen, he was looking at a picture of her on his desk.

"You ok?" she asked after a moment.

His jaw clenched and he swallowed hard before he spoke. "Who's Nate?" he choked out, his heart beating fast.

"What?"

"Nate. The twitter guy."

"Oh. He's just a guy in one of my classes," she told him dismissively.

"Do you like him?" he asked, his voice breaking.

"He's my friend, Adam. What's going on?"

He finally looked at her. "You know where to find me when you get lonely at night," he quoted.

"Oh. That."

"Yeah, that," he spat.

"We're just friends," she told him, clearly confused at his angry tone.

"Friends? Fiona, friends don't say stuff like that to each other."

"So, he flirts with me sometimes. You're acting like you don't trust me."

"Give me a reason to," he said without thinking. He quickly closed his eyes, shaking his head. "I didn't mean that."

Fiona was stunned silent on the other end of the video chat. Adam slowly opened his eyes and looked at her image on his screen.

"I trust you, Fiona," he told her slowly. "I just don't trust those other guys."

"Well, maybe you should trust me enough to know that I would never do anything with Nate or any other guy."

He opened his mouth to speak again, but she logged off the chat before he had a chance to say anything.

He ran both of his hands through his hair, looking at his empty screen. After a moment, he picked up his cell phone. He dialed Fiona's number and held it to his ear.

It rang once, then went to voicemail. He sighed, tears prickling at his eyes as he listened to Fiona's outgoing voice message. "This is Fiona. Clearly I'm not answering my phone right now so leave a message. If you're special, maybe I'll get back to you."

"Hey, um… I just wanted to say I'm sorry. I know you probably don't want to talk to me right now and I understand that but please call me back. I love you, Fi. Please, call me."

He slowly lowered his cell phone from his ear and put it back on his desk. The minutes ticked by until his cell phone rang. He sighed in relief when he saw Fiona's name.

"Hey," he said, holding his phone back up to his ear.

"Hi." Her voice was flat. "What do you want?"

He sighed. "I'm sorry." For a moment, there was no response. "Hello?" he asked.

"I'm here."

"I'm sorry," he said again.

"Congratulations."

"Fiona, come on."

"What? You're sorry, that's great. You should be."

"I do trust you."

"I know," she said, her voice still emotionless. "Adam, I can't talk to you right now."

"Fiona, please," he pleaded.

"I need some time," she told him, her voice so soft he barely heard her.

"What?" he asked. "Did… did you just… did you just break up with me?"

"No. I just need time. Please."

"Ok. Call me when you're ready to talk."

"I will."

He heard her phone click off before he had a chance to respond.

To be continued…

AN: well, that was a happy chapter. Here's a guide to what's going on in the tweets. Since FFN won't allow an at symbol, I replaced them with asterisks. So basically an asterisk is someone talking to someone else. Fiona's and Adam's twitter handles are the official Degrassi twitter names. Nate obviously doesn't have an official twitter name.


	8. Chapter 8

**The Way Back to You**

**Chapter 8**

"Adam, where have you been, dude?" Eli asked as he walked into the weight room, where Adam was laying on the weight bench, lifting a barbell.

"Here," he said simply.

Eli walked over to his friend. "Want a spot?"

"No thanks." Adam put the barbell back into the rack and sat up. He walked over to the punching bag.

"You ok?" Eli asked as Adam began hitting the bag, showing no mercy.

"Not really."

"Wanna talk about it?"

"No thanks."

Eli sighed and walked over to Adam. "Dude, come on. You can tell me…" he was cut off when Adam's fist suddenly collided with his face.

Eli doubled over, holding onto his nose as blood poured out of it. After a moment, he straightened up, the lower half of his face covered in blood. "What's your problem?"

"Sorry," Adam mumbled, shaking his head as he began walking away.

"Wait a minute," Eli said, grabbing his friend's arm.

"Don't touch me!" Adam shoved him away. Eli stumbled backwards then shoved Adam.

Adam rushed Eli, tackling him to the ground.

Eli pushed him off and pinned the younger boy. "What's wrong with you?" he demanded.

"She hasn't called in over a week," Adam said, his voice low.

Eli sighed and stood up. Adam remained on the ground, until Eli held his hand out. Adam grabbed his friend's arm and pulled himself up.

"She'll call," Eli told him. "Just give her some time."

0o-0o-0o-0o

Drew knocked on the door to Adam's bedroom. Though it was only four in the afternoon, Adam was already in bed, staring at the picture of him and Fiona that was on the table next to his bed.

"What?" he asked, not moving from his position on his bed.

Drew slowly opened the door and walked into the room. "Wanna go see a movie or something?"

"No," Adam said simply.

"How about the arcade? We can go to the batting cages."

"What do you want, Andrew?"

"Mom's worried about you," Drew told him. "So am I. I mean, you're taking this break up with Fiona really hard."

Adam finally looked at his brother. "We're not broken up! She just… she needs some time."

Drew sighed and slowly sat down on Adam's bed. "When a girl says she needs time, she's just trying to let you down easy."

"No." Adam shook his head. "No. She was just mad. She needs some time to cool off."

"How long has it been?"

"Nine days."

Drew looked at Adam sadly. "I'm sorry, man."

* * *

Fiona stared at her cell phone, an unfinished sketch for her design class was on her desk. She couldn't concentrate on homework. She hadn't been paying attention in the last class session. She had no idea what the assignment even was.

She picked up her phone, deciding to call her friend Carly, who was in her class. But she didn't dial Carly's number.

"Hey," the all too familiar voice said as the voicemail picked up. "This is Adam. You know the drill."

The phone beeped. Fiona opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She sighed and slowly lowered the phone from her ear.

She sat down at her computer and logged onto FaceRange. She looked at her own profile. Something was wrong. Engaged was still written under her relationship status, but the link to Adam's profile was gone. Confused, she went to his profile and looked at his status.

Single.

To be continued…


	9. Chapter 9

**The Way Back to You**

**Chapter 9**

Fiona slowly opened her eyes and looked around. She was laying on a couch and, while she'd seen this living room before, couldn't place it. She sat up quickly, a searing pain shooting to the back of her head. She groaned, blinking in the bright light from the window.

"Look, who's awake." She blinked again and looked up as Nate walked from the kitchen of the apartment to the couch, carrying a plate of toast and a glass of water. He sat down next to her legs.

"You're not wearing a shirt," she mumbled.

He laughed. "You're observant." For a moment, she looked horrified as she tried to sort out the events of the previous night in her pounding head. "Don't worry. Nothing happened," he told her. He put the toast and water on the table before going into his bedroom.

After a moment, he returned wearing a ribbed tank top. "Better?"

"I feel like shit," she responded. She couldn't believe how bad her hangover was.

"Not surprising. You should eat. And take these." He pulled three aspirin out of his pocket and put them next to the water.

"What happened?"

He sighed and sat next to her again. "You got a voicemail from Adam after class. I'm not gonna repeat it right now, but it wasn't good. Next thing I know, you were dragging me to every bar in a twenty mile radius. You have a very impressive fake ID, by the way."

She looked down at her hand, realizing her engagement ring was gone.

"You took it off," he told her. He reached into his pocket again and handed her ring back to her.

She looked at the ring in the palm of her hand. "So it's…. it's over."

Nate reached over to rub her back softly. "Sorry, Fi."

"Nate, where'd you go?" Fiona looked up to find Brandon, who she recognized as a friend of Nate's, walking out of Nate's room. Brandon looked at Fiona and blinked. "Oh. Um… I didn't realize… I'll leave."

"Wait," Nate said quickly as Brandon left. Nate swung the door closed as they walked into the hallway, but it didn't click shut. From where she sat, she would make out their shadows.

"Don't leave," Nate's voice whispered. "She's upset. She just broke up with her fiancée. She needs someone to talk to. Just for a couple more hours."

"Alright," Brandon sighed.

She watched as Nate leaned toward Brandon and quickly dropped her head to look at the food on the table as the boys kissed.

"Sorry about that," Nate said, walking back into the apartment. He returned to the couch while Brandon went back to the bedroom.

"No," Fiona said quickly. "I'm sorry. I… I didn't realize that you… that you're…"

"Gay," Nate said for her. He smiled, then nodded. "Is that a problem?"

"No," she said quickly. "Of course not. I just didn't think… I mean, you're always around girls. You flirt with me all the time."

He smiled and shrugged. "I'm a people person. And I do like you. If I liked girls, I would definitely be into you. I might have even tried to whisk you away from Adam."

She bit her lip as memories from the previous day flooded back. She remembered the angry voicemail Adam had left on her phone.

"_You want to be with Nate, Fiona? Be with Nate! I'm not gonna stand in your way anymore."_

"Actually, I think you might have. Adam and I had a fight a couple weeks ago. He saw that tweet you sent me, he got jealous. I didn't really say alleviate his concerns."

Nate raised his eyebrows. "Leave it to you to use big words when you're hung over."

"Sorry. Want me to get you a dictionary?" she teased.

He laughed and shook his head. "Good luck finding one in the apartment. It sounds like we need to go see Adam."

Fiona shook her head. "It's Saturday afternoon. We're not gonna be able to go there and get back in time for class Monday. I don't even know when the next plane to Toronto leaves."

Nate shrugged. "Whenever we say it does."

She rolled her eyes. "Sorry, but my dad's using our private jet this weekend," she said. Though she'd meant it as a sarcastic comment, it was the truth.

"Good for you, I know someone who has his own jet. B, come out here," he called into the bedroom.

Brandon walked out of the bedroom again.

"Fiona Coyne, this is Brandon Ashburn," Nate introduced them. Fiona's jaw dropped as soon as he said his last name. Nate smiled as he continued. "Son of Christopher Ashburn, the youngest self-made millionaire in New York City."

Nate turned to Brandon. "Is it alright if we borrow your plane for a couple days?"

"The pilot's on vacation," Brandon said.

Nate shrugged. "I have a pilot's license."

"No," Fiona said automatically. "I'm not getting in a plane that you're flying."

"Fine," Nate groaned, rolling his eyes. "We'll kidnap the pilot."

"Do I get to know what's going on?" Brandon asked.

Nate smiled and looked up at his boyfriend. "We're going to Canada."

To be continued…

AN: and you silly gooses were worried about Nate!


	10. Chapter 10

**The Way Back to You**

**Chapter 10**

"The pilot said we'll land in about twenty minutes," Brandon said as he sat next to Nate. Both men looked at Fiona, who was staring out the window.

Nate moved to sit next to Fiona. "You'll see him soon. He'll put that ring back on your finger and you'll be back to having the fairytale relationship most girls only dream of."

She smiled sadly and looked at him. "I hope so but… you heard the message."

"I heard a guy who was terrified that the love of his life was gone forever. That's bound to make a person reach some level of hysteria."

"And men are historically horrible at communication," Brandon chimed in.

She smiled. "Yeah, it's definitely not one of Adam's strong suits."

0o-0o-0o-0o

Adam groaned when the doorbell rang. He paused the movie we was watching and shuffled to the door.

When he opened it and saw Fiona and two guys he didn't know, his first instinct was to close the door in their faces. But he didn't. "What are you doing here?" he asked, keeping his voice low.

"I want to talk to you," she told him.

He shook his head. "I have nothing to say." He swung the door shut and began walking away, but Fiona caught the door and followed him into the house, Nate and Brandon close behind her.

"Just talk to her, man," Nate urged.

"Who the hell are you?" Adam demanded, turning to look at the older boy.

He released a slow breath. "I'm Nate." Adam might not have recognized his face, but he knew he'd recognize his name.

Adam's jaw clenched as his eyes darkened. Every muscle in his body tightened as both of his hands formed fists. He would have loved nothing more than to beat that pretty face of Nate's in.

Instead, he took a step away from the small group. "Get out," he said simply. He walked away from them, Fiona followed him immediately.

"Adam, please, listen to me," she pleaded as they entered his kitchen.

He braced himself against a chair and slowly turned his head to look at her. "Did you really have to bring him?"

"He brought me here."

"Why? So you two can rub it in my face?"

"We're not rubbing anything in your face, Adam. We came here to explain…"

"Explain what? Why you don't want to be with me anymore? I get it, Fiona. I do. It was only a matter of time."

"Until what?" she asked carefully. He sounded so calm it scared her.

"Until you decided I wasn't good enough. Until you wanted a real guy."

She shook her head, tears falling from her eyes. "No. No, that's not what happened."

"Ok. Then what did happen? You were bored one night and Nate was there and you guys decided to…"

"Stop it!" she yelled, cutting him off. "Stop it. I did not cheat on you."

"Why should I believe you?"

"Because Nate's gay. If you don't believe me, that's his boyfriend with him. You can ask them."

He blinked. "Oh."

"Adam, I love you," she told him, walking toward him. "I know these last couple weeks have been hell. For both of us. But we can fix it. We can make it ok." She stopped in front of him and took his hands in hers. "Please."

He shook his head and slowly pulled his hands free. "Not in one day. We can't make everything better in one day."

"Don't," she pleaded as he stepped away from her.

He looked down at the floor. "We can say it's ok, but it won't be. When you leave, we're just gonna have the same problems we had before. We're still gonna miss each other and… there's still gonna be guys. Maybe Nate's not after you but it's only a matter of time until someone else is."

"It doesn't matter," she told him, shaking her head. "You're the only one for me. You're it."

"I know. For me too but… it's just not gonna work like this." He slowly walked over to her and kissed her forehead. "I'm sorry, Fi."

"Adam," she whimpered when he began walking away from her again.

"You should probably go." He walked over to the kitchen counter and leaned against it so he wouldn't have to look at her.

For a moment, she didn't move, then she slowly turned and walked out of the room. Nate and Brandon were still waiting in the living room.

"What happened?" Nate asked when he saw the tears streaming down her face.

She shook her head, wrapping her arms around herself as if that was all that was holding her together. "Can you just take me home?"

To be continued…

AN: I know, you guys are all probably freaking out right now. But remember, the story's called The Way _Back_ to You


	11. Chapter 11

**The Way Back to You**

**Chapter 11**

"She's fine, Mrs. Coyne," Nate said, pacing his living room as he spoke on the phone to Fiona's mother. He looked at Fiona, who was curled up in a fetal position on his couch.

She'd fallen asleep on the plane ride back to New York. He and Brandon woke her up as the plane landed but as soon as they got to his apartment so that she could freshen up before heading home, she fell onto his couch and hadn't moved since.

"Yeah, she's just… tired. We were up all night studying," he said, deciding she should be the one to tell her mother about the break up. "Ok, I will. Yeah. Alright. Bye." He hung up the phone and slowly moved over to the couch.

"Fiona," he whispered. He heard her snoring and fought back a smile before grabbing a blanket from the arm chair in the corner and draping it over her.

* * *

"What's that?" Eli asked as he and Clare walked down the hallway toward Adam's bedroom. He missed two days of school following his break up with Fiona and when Eli had called during lunch to check on him, his mother simply told him he had the flu.

Now, he was standing outside the doorway to his best friend's room and there was music he didn't recognize blasting.

"I think its Nsync," Clare said.

Eli quickly reached for the doorknob, only to find the door was locked. He pounded on the door. "Adam, open up," he called as if he was trying to save Adam from a firing squad.

After a moment, the lock clicked. The door, however, didn't open. Eli and Clare shared a look before Eli tested the doorknob again.

This time, the door opened and they saw Adam, dressed in only boxers and a t-shirt, fall face first onto his bed.

Eli pulled the iPod out of the speakers, resulting in a deafening silence in the room. Clare picked up a picture from the floor.

The frame that held the picture of Adam and Fiona had been damaged badly, the glass had several cracks in it. Looking at his wall, she could see the tiny tear in the drywall where he'd thrown the picture.

"Dude, you reek," Eli said, taking a step away from the bed.

"Sorry," Adam said, his voice muffled by his pillow.

"What can we do?" Clare asked, sitting on the bed next to him.

"Nothing," he said simply.

Eli rolled his eyes. "At least take a shower." Clare glared at him before he continued. "It might make you feel better."

"Fine," Adam grumbled as he rolled out of bed. He grabbed clean underwear and walked to the bathroom.

Fifteen minutes later, Adam returned. His wet hair was the only visible change. Again, he fell onto his bed, burying his face in his pillow.

"Good job," Clare said, looking at her boyfriend. "Now he's not just sad, he's wet."

Eli sighed, crossing his arms as he looked at the pathetic lump his best friend had become. "Get up," he said.

She rolled her eyes as Adam pulled his covers over his head. "Brilliant."

"Just leave me alone," Adam mumbled.

"Nope," Eli said, sitting down on Adam's bed. He began to bounce, making Adam's bed shake.

"Eli, stop it."

"Why? What are you gonna do, break my nose?" The older boy scoffed. "You already did that."

Adam finally rolled over to look at his friends. The movement made Eli stop bouncing. "What do you want?"

"Come out with us," Clare said. "We can go to The Dot or to a movie. Whatever you want."

Adam sighed. "I don't really wanna do anything."

Eli looked at Clare, who shrugged and sat next to him. "We'll just stay here then."

To be continued…


	12. Chapter 12

**The Way Back to You**

**Chapter 12**

Fiona waved her hand in front of her own face as she laid on her couch. It didn't look right to her without her engagement ring. Even though she wore other rings on her fingers, her hand felt too light when she lifted it.

"I'm sorry, sweetie," her mother said as she walked into the living room. "I couldn't find your ring anywhere. Do you remember where you lost it?"

Fiona sighed. "No."

"Well, I'm sure Adam will understand. I still think you should try retracing your steps though. It's got to be somewhere."

The younger woman slowly sat up to look at her mother. "I know where the ring is," she mumbled.

"What? I thought you said you lost it."

Fiona shook her head. "You assumed. I… I stopped wearing it."

"Why would you do that?"

"Because an engagement ring is for people who are engaged," she said slowly.

Lara blinked, trying to make sense of what her daughter was telling her. "Oh, Fiona," she sighed after a moment, moving to sit next to her. "Tell me what happened."

"I might have kind of flirted with Nate a little bit on Twitter. Adam saw it and it just kind of blew up."

"That doesn't make any sense. Why would you flirt with Nate?"

"I don't know, maybe because I'm incapable of being happy."

"That's not true. You were happy."

"I was," she agreed. "And then I ruined it. Just like I always do."

"Fiona, don't be so hard on yourself." Lara smoothed some of her daughter's hair back. "You're both so young. This was bound to happen sooner or later."

"Great. Thanks for your support, Mom."

Lara shook her head. "I just mean that you're only 18. You just started university. And Adam just turned 17, he's still in high school. You're both still babies." Fiona glared at her mother. "You're young. You were his first girlfriend and after Bobby…"

"Mom, can we please not bring Bobby up right now?" Fiona asked, sounding tired.

"Sorry. My point is, you have both been through a lot and your relationship got so intense so fast. Maybe it's best that you two are taking a break from each other."

Fiona rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "Thanks for the talk."

She got up from the couch and ran up the stairs to her room. She grabbed her phone, biting down on her bottom lip as she dialed.

After two rings, her best friend answered. "About damn time," Holly J quipped.

Fiona smiled. "Sorry I haven't called in a while. Are you busy? Can we talk?"

"Never too busy for you, Fi. What happened?"

To be continued…

AN: I think this is the shortest chapter yet and I'm pretty sure it's the longest I've focused on Fiona without Adam around. Insert appropriate Fionabitchface here.


	13. Chapter 13

**The Way Back to You**

**Chapter 13**

"Ow," Adam muttered when Clare reached up and pulled something off his chin as they walked down the hallway. He touched the spot where he'd felt a tiny tug. "What was that?"

She held a tiny brown hair between her thumb and forefinger. "Make a wish."

He smiled and blew the hair out of her hand then touched his cheek. Still smooth. He knew it was too early for his facial hair to begin growing regularly, but he had noticed his arms and legs growing thicker hair.

"You're gonna need to start shaving soon, dude," Eli said.

Adam shook his head. "I still have awhile before that happens," he said, his voice cracking on the last word. He cleared his throat.

"Uh oh," Eli laughed. "Someone hit puberty," he said, forcing his own voice to crack to imitate Adam's.

Adam playfully shoved his friend into nearby lockers.

"Hey, Adam," a voice suddenly said.

Adam looked up as a blond cheerleader walked by. "Hi, Marissa," he said, smiling politely.

His new body had spurred new interest from girls. His mother still didn't let him play sports, worried that his teammates would turn on him, and while he didn't quite match up to the football players and other athletes in muscle mass, he still had enough to impress.

He didn't pay much attention to the girls, however. He rarely looked at them twice. There were a few times he'd been asked out and he never accepted. Some girls, like Marissa, took this as a challenge. As if it was a competition to see what it would take for Adam to finally go on a date. There were some rumors that he didn't like girls after all.

Eli rolled his eyes and put one arm around his friend's shoulders. "Guys night tonight?"

Adam smiled and looked at Clare. "You guys don't have plans?"

Clare shook her head. "I'm going shopping with Alli."

"Halo night," Adam announced, bumping fists with Eli. "Sweet."

0o-0o-0o-0o

"You're getting better at this game," Eli commented as Adam blew away another member of the opposite team.

Adam simply nodded. "I've had a lot of free time to practice."

Suddenly, Eli paused the game and turned to Adam. "Talk to me, man."

Adam rolled his eyes and put his remote down. "About what?"

"Anything."

"Anything as long as it involves me and Fiona?"

Eli shrugged. "You hardly moved for almost a month. I thought I was gonna have to get you a bedpan."

Adam smiled sadly. "I'm fine."

"Yeah, now you are. Maybe… maybe it's time to move on though. You know, maybe you should go on a date."

Adam made a face. "With Marissa?" He shook his head. "No, man. She's nasty."

Eli laughed. "I'm not sure if nasty is a word I'd use to describe her."

"You've never talked to her," he said, grimacing at the memory of the one time he'd had something resembling a conversation with the cheerleader.

"She doesn't challenge you intellectually?" Eli asked, laughing again.

"You could say that."

"How about… physically?"

Adam shrugged. "I guess. I mean, she's alright. I prefer brunettes though."

To be continued…

AN: Just in case anybody's dazed and confused at the timeline here: the story began in late August with Fiona leaving for FIT, then her first visit was around the end of September/early October (she and Nate were in their third week of classes the chapter before she visited). The Twitter fight took place right after her visit, so September/October, then after they didn't talk for almost two weeks, so they broke up in October. And it's been over a month since the break up, so we're now in November.


	14. Chapter 14

**The Way Back to You**

**Chapter 14**

Adam pushed his hoodie sleeve back to look at his watch. It was only eight o'clock. He hoped Marissa didn't notice when he rolled his eyes. His curfew couldn't come quick enough.

He looked at Eli and Clare, who were sitting across the table from them at The Dot. Clare was looking at her French fries, picking the burnt edges off of them. She'd tried to start various conversations, but they all quickly died out.

Marissa and Adam had nothing in common. It was almost painful to watch. She seemed to have a negative reaction to everything Adam said. Eventually, he stopped talking altogether.

Suddenly, Clare clutched her stomach and groaned. Eli jumped and looked at his girlfriend. "What's wrong?" he asked quickly.

Clare shook her head, still holding onto her stomach. "We need to go," she said.

Eli nodded and helped her out of her seat. "Adam," she said pathetically holding her other arm out to her friend.

Adam quickly stood and put Clare's arm around his neck. "Sorry," he said to Marissa before the boys led Clare away.

"I got her, man," Adam said once they were outside. "Go get the car. Where'd you park?"

Eli smirked. "Down the block. You can let go of her."

"What?" Adam's mouth fell open as Eli stepped away from his girlfriend. "She can hardly stand."

"She's fine," Eli said.

Clare straightened up and looked at Adam, smiling.

He blinked, looking between his two friends. "What just happened?"

"Someone had to put an end to that horrible date," she told him.

Adam smiled. "You were just acting?"

Eli rolled his eyes. "If you can call that acting. It was a bit overdramatic for my taste."

* * *

Fiona glanced over her shoulder when her computer beeped. She walked out of the kitchen and looked at her laptop, smiling when she saw the Holly J wanted to chat on Skype.

"Hey, HJ," Fiona said as she carried her computer to the island.

"Hey. What are you doing?"

"I was just about to eat," she said, sitting down on a stool.

"Oh. What did Jean-Pierre make today?"

"Nothing. Mom gave him the day off, so I'm fending for myself. I made grilled cheese." She held up the blackened sandwich.

Holly J fought back a grimace. "Looks… yummy. Why didn't you just order take out?"

Fiona shrugged. "Nate's always going on about grilled cheese. I don't see what the big deal is."

Holly J laughed. "I think some of the allure may have been lost in the preparation."

Fiona shrugged again. "What do you have planned for the weekend?" Thanksgiving break had officially started for them.

"Studying."

"How boring," Fiona sighed.

"We can't all be art students. _Some_ of us have exams."

Fiona rolled her eyes and glanced at the pile of unfinished sketches and other projects. The due dates were coming up soon. "Why don't we go visit your mom for a few days?"

"Fiona, I don't have time. Not this weekend."

"Come on," Fiona urged. "It'll be fun. We both need breaks."

"You don't want to go see my mom," Holly J said knowingly.

"Ok, you caught me." She rolled her eyes. "So?"

"Fine. But you won't find a flight. Trust me, they're all booked solid."

Fiona shook her head. "You have such little faith in me, Holly J."

To be continued…

AN: Holly J makes a comment about art students here and before art students prepare to attack me, I'm an art student and can't tell you how often my friends who have "normal" majors tell me how busy they are because they have tests they need to study for, when I have four projects all due on the same day.


	15. Chapter 15

**The Way Back to You**

**Chapter 15**

"You know, I won't be upset if you decide you want Brandon to be your new best friend," Holly J said as she and Fiona sat at The Dot.

Fiona smiled and shook her head. "Sorry. You're not getting rid of me that easy."

"Damn. Brandon doesn't happen to have a cute, straight brother with his own jet, does he?"

Fiona shook her head again.

Holly J glanced toward the door then quickly turned on her stool to face the counter. "Look who it is," she mumbled.

Fiona looked over her shoulder and spotted Adam with Eli and Clare. Adam kept his head down as he followed the couple to the corner table. He sat down with his back to her.

She sighed and looked at Holly J. "What should I do?" she whispered, leaning closer to her friend.

Holly J shrugged. "You're the one who wanted to come here. You know he always comes here after school."

"Right." Both girls looked over to the three teenagers, Adam was leaning over the table slightly to talk to Eli and Clare.

"Maybe we should leave," Fiona suggested. Holly J nodded and they began gathering their things.

"Fiona?"

The voice behind them made both girls freeze. Fiona swallowed hard before she slowly turned to face her ex. "Hey, Adam," she whispered.

There was silence for a moment before he spoke again. "Can we talk?" he asked, pointing vaguely to the door.

She nodded and followed him out onto the street. He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets as he turned to look at her. "So…"

"Hi," she said.

He laughed. "Hi."

"It's been a while."

"Month and a half."

She knew the length of time she had gone without talking to him, but hearing it out loud was like a punch to her gut. "How… uh… how are you doing?"

"Good," he said simply.

She nodded. "You look good." She was surprised at how much he had physically changed.

His arms were hidden by his jacket, but the way he stood told her all she needed to know. He usually slouched, but now stood up straight, which she knew was an attempt to make himself seem slightly taller. He'd also cut his hair, it was now just slightly longer than a buzz cut.

He smiled. "You too." He took a tiny step toward her. "Why are you here?"

"I miss you."

He smiled again. "I miss you too." He looked down at the ground. "How long are you here for?"

"Holly J wants to leave Sunday morning."

"Right," he said, nodding.

"But if she catches an early flight, I can stay until Monday morning."

He nodded again.

"If I have a reason to," she added softly.

"It would be nice to… catch up."

"Do you wanna go inside and talk for a while? Maybe grab a bite to eat?" she asked. Even with her coat buttoned, she was still cold standing out on the street.

Adam looked quickly back at The Dot, relieved to see their friends weren't watching them from the windows, but he knew if they went inside they would have an audience. "Actually, how about we go to my house?"

0o-0o-0o-0o

"Do you want something to drink?" Adam asked as he and Fiona entered his house. He took off his coat and tossed it into a chair.

"Water?" she said, also taking off her jacket and tossing it on top of his.

"You got it." He went into the kitchen as she sat down on his couch. After a moment, he returned holding two bottles of vitamin water. "My mom isn't too happy that you made me like water that costs three bucks a bottle so much."

She shrugged. "You're a growing boy, you need nourishment."

He smiled and shook his head as he handed her her water and sat next to her. For a moment, he thought about how easy it would be to simply lean over and kiss her. He quickly shook the thoughts from his head.

"Something wrong?"

He shook his head again. "Are uh… are you seeing anybody?" he inquired slowly.

"Nope," she said simply. "You?"

He laughed. "No."

"Why do I feel like there's a story behind that no?" she asked knowingly.

"No story," he told her. "Just one painful date."

She nodded. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah. Of course."

"What happened? When… when we broke up, what went wrong?"

He sighed. "I guess I got myself all worked up over nothing. When you came here with Nate, I got so mad. Even after I found out nothing was going on I just… I knew there would be someone eventually."

"You didn't listen when I told you there won't be. Ever. Guys in New York don't even compare to you."

He nodded. "Yeah, right."

"They don't. And for more than one reason," she told him, knowing he was thinking about just how much he wasn't like other guys. "I might not have been with you physically, but my heart always was. I'm still in love with you, Adam."

He hesitated, but only for a moment, before he kissed her softly. It quickly deepened as she linked her arms around his neck, pulling him down on top of her as she laid down.

He'd forgotten how good it felt to hold her in his arms. He couldn't believe he ever let her go.

She eventually pulled away for air, but he continued trailing kisses along her forehead, cheeks and neck. "I love you," he whispered against her neck.

She moaned softly, stroking his back as he continued to kiss every exposed piece of skin he could reach. "Do… do you wanna go upstairs?"

He pulled away to look at her and caressed her cheek softly. "No," he told her, shaking his head. He turned so that she was on top of him, then pulled her down to him so that her head was resting against his shoulder as he stroked her hair. "I just wanna stay here with you."

To be continued…

AN: I just noticed this as I was writing this chapter, something big always happens in chapters that are multiples of five, starting back with All We Are. No idea why.


	16. Chapter 16

**The Way Back to You**

**Chapter 16**

Drew walked into the house, tired after football practice. He dropped his stuff next to the door and moved toward the kitchen, when he noticed two figures asleep on the couch.

He crossed the room to see Adam and Fiona, both fast asleep in each other's arms. He wasn't sure what to think about Fiona being back in town. Adam hadn't told him all the details surrounding their break up, but he knew it wasn't pretty. He had to watch his brother walk around the house and school as a shell of himself for weeks.

He was finally starting to get better. Go figure she would choose now to return to his life.

"Adam," he said. He shook his little brother's arm when he didn't move. "Adam, wake up."

Fiona stirred first. Adam didn't open his eyes until she sat up. "Hey, Drew," she said.

"Hi," Drew responded curtly. He didn't look at her, instead keeping his eyes on Adam. "Can we talk?"

"Yeah." Adam turned to Fiona and kissed her softly. "I'll be right back," he whispered.

Drew rolled his eyes as they leaned in for another kiss. He grabbed his brother's arm and dragged him off of the couch and to the kitchen.

"Ow! What's your problem?" Adam demanded, pulling his arm free.

"My…" Drew began, shaking his head. "What's wrong with you? Why is she here?"

Adam shrugged. "She has a long weekend," he said as if that explained everything.

"And, what, the only place she had to sleep is on top of you?"

"We fell asleep," Adam said simply.

"She broke your heart, Adam," Drew said, trying to remain calm.

"She didn't… Drew, I broke up with her."

"It doesn't matter who broke up with who!" Drew was yelling now. "I saw you. I saw what it did to you."

"There was a misunderstanding…"

"There was another guy. There's no misunderstanding that."

"No, there wasn't."

"Adam, I saw the tweet. Everyone did."

Adam visibly flinched at the memory of how less than 140 characters changed everything. He shook his head and opened his mouth to speak when the front door slammed.

"It's too early for Mom to be home," Drew said, looking at his watch.

Adam took off for the living room. As he feared, Fiona was gone, along with her bag and coat. It was unseasonably cold for November, but he didn't bother to grab his jacket as he went after her. She was already half way down the block.

"Fiona!" he called, running down the street to catch up with her. She didn't slow down, so he sped up until he caught her arm to stop her. "Fi, what's wrong?"

She hesitated a moment before she turned to look at him. She was crying. "I'm sorry, Adam. I'm so sorry."

He shook his head, clearly confused. "What?"

"I hurt you. I hurt you so badly and I… I didn't even realize what I was doing."

He shook his head again, reaching out to put his arms around her. "Fi, it's ok."

"No." She stepped away from him. "I broke your heart."

"Fiona," he whispered, reaching for her hand. She tried to pull herself free again but he kept his hold on her. "It's ok," he told her again. "I'm ok."

"It's not ok," she said. "It's not gonna be ok. Your brother hates me."

"He doesn't hate you."

"I heard you guys yelling. About me."

"Who cares what Drew thinks? He'll forget all about this once he finds something shiny to focus on."

She laughed despite herself. "Drew's the easy one though. Your parents… I'm sure they hate me."

Adam shook his head once more as he took her in his arms. "I don't see how anyone could possibly hate you."

"There are a few people who would disagree with you."

"Does it really matter?"

"But your mom…"

"She'll get over it." He pulled her closer to him, holding onto her tightly.

"I doubt it'll be that easy."

He pulled back slightly to look at her. "I'm not giving her a choice. Unless she wants to lose me."

"Adam," Fiona said in a warning tone.

"I'm not losing you," he told her. "Not again."

0o-0o-0o-0o

Adam checked his watch as he sat on the couch with Fiona. His mother was due home any minute.

"Relax," Fiona told him, squeezing his hand softly.

He turned his head to look at her. "I'm fine."

"Liar," she whispered, leaning in to kiss him softly.

He jumped when the front door opened and quickly stood to face his mother. "There's some groceries in the car," Audra told him, not looking at him as she took off her coat. "Do you mind-" she cut herself short when she looked up and saw Fiona standing in middle of her living room.

"Hi, Mrs. Torres."

The two women looked at each other in silence. "Adam," Audra finally said, sounding as if she was choking on something. "Groceries. Please."

Adam opened his mouth to speak when Fiona's hand slipped out of his. She gave him a tiny nudge and tilted her head towards the door. "Go," she said softly.

He hesitated, not taking his eyes off his mother before he slowly walked out of the house.

With Adam gone, the room fell onto an uncomfortable silence.

"Drew," Audra called up the stairs after a moment.

"He's not here," Fiona said without thinking. She inhaled quickly when the other woman turned to look at her, her eyes shooting daggers. "He went to Bianca's."

"Of course. We'll be having dinner in about thirty minutes. You're welcome to stay," Audra offered, though the infliction in her voice told Fiona different.

"I would love to, Mrs. Torres," Fiona said politely. "Thank you."

Audra just nodded. "I'll go set a place at the table for you."

Fiona watched her boyfriend's mother leave the room. After a moment, Adam returned, both of his arms full of bags. She laughed and walked over to him, taking a couple bags. "Did you get it all?"

He nodded. "Yep."

She laughed again, shaking her head as they walked into the kitchen and Adam dropped the sacks of food he help onto the table while Fiona put the bags she held on the counter. She had been in his house enough to know where they kept the cereal, so she began putting the groceries away.

After a few minutes of unpacking the bags in silence, Adam laughed.

"What?" she asked.

Still smiling, he held up a bottle of whipped cream.

She raised her eyebrows suggestively, smiling as he walked over to her and kissed her. "Be good," she warned, pulling away from him. "We need to get through dinner before we can have dessert."

To be continued…


	17. Chapter 17

AN: remember back in chapter 6 when I said this story would stay T rated? Yeah… I lied. Starting with this chapter, it's now rated M!

**The Way Back to You**

**Chapter 17**

"So, Fiona, how's school going?"

Fiona smiled at Adam's father. He had always been nice to her and while he was clearly shocked to see her sitting at his dinner table when he came home from work, he was very polite to her. "It's alright," she said. "I mean, the projects are…"

"How was football practice today, Drew?" Audra said suddenly, cutting Fiona short.

"Mom!" Adam said before Drew could answer. "Fiona was talking."

"I'm sorry." Audra looked at Adam, looking annoyed. "What were you saying?"

Fiona shook her head. "Nothing. I just… nothing."

Adam took Fiona's hand under the table and gave it a tiny squeeze. "What about your projects?" he asked.

She smiled at him. "They just um… they take a while."

"Of course they do," Audra said, making Adam roll his eyes. "Drew, how was football practice?"

0o-0o-0o-0o

"I'm sorry about that," Adam said as he walked into his bedroom after Fiona, closing his door behind them. "I don't know why she's so…" he trailed off and groaned.

"It's ok," she told him. She walked over to him and rubbed his arms, trying to calm him down.

"How do you do that?"

"Do what?"

He shrugged. "Let everything roll off your back. I mean, it's like nothing ever gets to you."

"Years of practice," she told him. "Plenty of stuff gets to me, it's usually just never worth getting worked up over."

"Has anyone ever told you how amazing you are?"

She smiled. "I tell myself that every day." She kissed him softly then led him to his bed. She laid down, pulling him down on top of her as she pulled his lips to hers again.

Her hands went to his stomach as she began unbuttoning his shirt. When she got to his chest, he popped the last couple buttons open then quickly shrugged out of it before he kissed her neck.

"Adam," she moaned softly. "I love you."

He slowly pulled away to look at her.

"Problem?" she asked after a moment.

He shook his head and moved to sit next to her. "What is this?"

"What's what?"

"This. Us. I mean… are we back together or…" he trailed off shrugging.

She sat up next to him. "What do you want?"

"You," he said simply.

She smiled and touched his cheek. "I'm yours."

He smiled and kissed her softly. "So we're official now?"

"I didn't realize we weren't before."

He shrugged. "I guess I'm just slow on the uptake."

"Apparently. I think you owe me an apology."

He laughed. "Sorry."

She flashed a wicked smile. "Prove it."

He kissed her again, this time pushing her down onto his pillows. After a moment, he pulled away and ran his hands slowly down her arms. He watched her, smiling when she shivered under his touch.

His hand slipped under her shirt and he slowly began pushing it up, caressing the newly exposed skin. Finally, he pulled her shirt off and tossed it onto the floor. He kissed her forehead softly then moved to kiss her stomach before he removed her skirt.

"Adam," she moaned as he ran his hands up her bare thighs before removing her panties.

He smiled and climbed her body to kiss her lips. "Shh," he said softly. "We have to be quiet."

"I can be quiet," she whispered.

"Can you?" he teased.

She raised her eyebrow and rolled over so that she was on top. "Can you?" She unbuckled his belt and took off his jeans, then his boxers.

"Impressive, Mr. Torres," she said as she looked at him. She knew that T-shots would cause clitoral growth, but the last time they were together he had only been taking the shots for about a month at that time. There wasn't much of a change then.

It was still small- only a few centimeters long, but he was happy with it. For now.

He gasped softly when she touched his erection. "Quiet," she reminded him.

He looked at her and made a noise low in the back of his throat, almost a growl. She smiled as she moved to lie next to him.

"Do you think we can um…" she trailed off and made an awkward movement with her hands, simulating penetrative sex.

"Um…" He sat up slightly. "I don't think so. I mean, maybe someday but…" He shrugged quickly.

She nodded and nudged him back into a laying position. She reached down to touch him again, smiling when he moaned softly, gritting his teeth to keep from making too much noise.

She kissed his neck softly. "Touch me," she whispered.

He smiled, turning his head to look at her. He kissed her forehead. "Yes, princess," he said as he complied.

To be continued…


	18. Chapter 18

**The Way Back to You**

**Chapter 18**

Adam groaned as his alarm went off next to him. He pressed the snooze button and rolled over, smiling when he saw Fiona asleep next to him.

He kissed her forehead softly. "Morning," he said when she stirred.

"Good morning," she said.

He smiled, propping himself up on his elbow as he cupped her cheek in his hand.

"What?"

"I just can't believe this isn't a dream. I can't believe you're really here."

She smiled and kissed him. "Real enough for you?"

He kissed her again, sighing when his alarm went off once more.

She groaned as he turned it off. "Time for school."

0o-0o-0o-0o

Fiona checked the time on her cell phone. Adam was in school, but he promised before he left the house in the morning that he'd meet her at The Dot for lunch.

Finally, the door to the diner opened and Adam walked in, out of breath. "Hey," he said as he walked over to her. He kissed her softly before he sat down next to her.

"Hey. Did you run here?" she asked, noticing the sweat glistening on his forehead.

"Uh… yeah."

"Taxi," she suggested. "Bus. Any mode of transportation that doesn't involve you coming to lunch sweaty, exhausted and fifteen minutes late. Lucky for you, I already ordered for us."

"Sorry," he said, taking her hand.

She shrugged. "We might as well enjoy the whole ten minutes we have before you run back to school."

"At least you'll have the rest of the day to shop."

"I don't want to shop."

He frowned, reaching up to touch her forehead. "You feeling ok?"

"Cute," she said, pushing his hand away. "I just wanted to spend the day with you."

He smiled, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. "We just need to make it through the rest of today and school tomorrow, then we have the whole weekend." He kissed her neck softly. "Just you and me."

"I guess I can hang out with Holly J tomorrow," she said, pouting slightly as she crossed her arms.

Adam laughed as Peter put two hamburgers, two Cokes and a large plate of fries on the table. "Make sure to bring that attitude with you," Adam told her, taking a drink. "She'll love it."

She rolled her eyes. "Is it so bad that I want to spend time with you?"

"Of course not. I just don't want to spend our weekend together grounded because my mom caught me skipping school."

"Then don't let her catch you," she suggested, popping a French fry into her mouth.

He smiled and leaned in to kiss her, stopping just before he touched her lips when he heard someone say his name.

He slowly turned to see Marissa standing at the table, leaning toward him, her cleavage spilling out over her low cut top.

"Have you been avoiding me, Adam?" Marissa asked.

Adam looked at the table to avoid staring at her chest. "No."

"Really? I couldn't find you at lunch."

Adam sighed, looking annoyed. "I was here. With my girlfriend, Fiona."

Marissa looked at Fiona, who had scooted closer to Adam and put her arm around him.

"Oh," Marissa said. "Right. Well… bye."

The cheerleader walked away. Adam shook his head before turning to look at Fiona.

"Someone's popular," she murmured.

"I'm sorry. She's just… I told you about that date…"

"Wait, you went out with… that?" She looked across the diner at the other girl, shooting daggers with her eyes.

"Just once. I don't like her. Not even a little bit."

"I know," she said, still looking at the tiny blond. She made a noise close to a growl. She hated the idea of anyone else being with Adam, especially a real-life Barbie doll.

He kissed the side of her head quickly. "Nice kitty," he whispered.

She looked at him and growled again, this time smiling.

He laughed and kissed her lips. "I should get back to school. Can't be late for math."

"What's two plus two?"

"Four."

"Two times two?"

He laughed. "Still four."

"See, you know math. You don't need to go."

He shook his head, still smiling. He kissed her forehead softly. "I'll see you in a few hours," he promised. When she pouted, he kissed her lips.

He grabbed his backpack and got up to leave the table, when she grabbed his arm. "One more?" she asked, pointing to her lips.

He smiled and kissed her again. "I really need to go now."

"Fine." She reluctantly released him. "Get a taxi back to school though. I don't want you all smelly and gross when you get home tonight."

"I'll try." He kissed her once more, then finally walked away from the table.

To be continued…

AN: I know I said at the beginning of this story (or at the end of When In Rome. I can't remember) that this would span the whole school year, but since it's already 18 chapters in and it's only November in the story, I'm cutting this down to the end of the semester. Then there's gonna be a sequel. So... yeah.


	19. Chapter 19

**The Way Back to You**

**Chapter 19**

Adam took a drink of his Coke and drummed his fingers on the table as he waited for Fiona at The Dot. The weekend had officially started, meaning two full, uninterrupted days alone with her. The only problem was, his weekend had started without her.

She'd been out with Holly J all day and promised to meet him at The Dot after he got out of school. He'd only been waiting about five minutes, but the school day seemed to last forever. He couldn't wait to see her.

Suddenly, a pair of hands covered his eyes.

He jumped then smiled. "I know those hands anywhere," he said. "Eli."

Fiona laughed and smacked him playfully in the head as she moved to sit next to him, but he quickly grabbed her wrist and pulled her into his lap. She laughed softly as she wound her arms around his shoulders. "Hello," she said.

"Hi," he replied, still smiling. He pulled her closer and kissed her.

The small restaurant was crowded with Degrassi students, but he didn't care who saw them. They'd been limiting their make out sessions to his bedroom. Not that either of them minded, as they didn't have to hold back when things escalated, but they were on their best behavior around his family.

It was nice to be able to hold her and not worry about getting interrupted by his parents or brother.

"Here's your food. You can stop trying to eat her tongue now," Peter said as he put the food Adam had already ordered down on the table.

Adam smiled and looked at Pete as he walked away before whispering in Fiona's ear, "that's not the only thing I wanna eat."

"Ew, Adam," she laughed, pushing him back gently.

He shrugged, still smiling as he leaned in to kiss her again but she popped a French fry into his mouth. He quickly swallowed it and pressed his lips against the underside of her ear. "Do you wanna go home?" he whispered.

"Our food just came."

"So? We can wrap it up and take it with us. Drew's gonna be at football practice for a couple hours, my mom and dad won't be home until late."

She smiled. They'd have the whole house to themselves for a couple hours. "Let's go."

0o-0o-0o-0o

When they'd gotten to his house, Fiona and Adam turned on a movie and settled down on the couch. Within thirty minutes, the movie was forgotten and they were horizontal on the couch.

His hand traveled over her stomach and to the waist of her jeans. He quickly popped the button open and slipped his hand inside, underneath her panties.

When he touched her, she gasped and nearly flew off the couch. She struggled to think clearly as he caressed her most sensitive spot. She knew they couldn't keep going. She wasn't sure how much time they had before someone came home, but she didn't want to risk anyone walking in while they were making love in the living room.

"Adam," she choked out. "Upstairs. Please."

He looked at her, a small smile playing on his lips. "Yes, princess." He rolled off of her and easily picked her up.

"You know, I'm perfectly capable of walking on my own," she told him as he carried her to the stairs.

"I know," he said as he began walking up the stairs. "But I gotta gear up for the honeymoon, right?"

"You wouldn't carry me up the stairs on our honeymoon."

He stopped and looked at her. "Yeah, you're right." His arms suddenly dropped out from underneath her.

"Adam," she screeched, clutching his shoulders. He laughed and quickly caught her before she hit the floor. "You jerk! It's not funny!" she said, though she was also laughing.

"You know I'd never let you fall," he told her as he started moving again. He kissed the side of her head softly as she buried her face against his shoulder, still giggling.

"I know." She turned her head to look at him, still leaning against his shoulder. "You're moving kind of slow," she observed.

He laughed again and slowed down more, dragging his feet across the carpet of the stairs.

"Come on," she demanded. "Faster." She quickly slapped him on the butt.

He stopped again and blinked. "Did you just spank me?"

She nodded, raising one of her eyebrows. "What are you gonna do about it?"

He smiled and slowly lowered her to the floor, then kissed her neck softly. "Whatever you'd like."

To be continued…


	20. Chapter 20

Review reply to laykayisamazing: thanks! It'll happen eventually ;)

**The Way Back to You**

**Chapter 20**

Adam and Fiona both groaned when his alarm went off at 7 o'clock. "Sorry," he mumbled as music blared from the speakers. He'd forgotten he set his clock on radio mode.

"Turn it off," she whined, curling up against him without opening her eyes.

He laid in bed for a moment, listening to the song that had just started playing as he gently rubbed Fiona's back. "How about this song for the wedding?"

"Hmm?" she hummed.

"You know, for our first dance."

"Whatever you want, baby," she mumbled. "Just go back to sleep."

He smiled and kissed the top of her head. He turned the volume of his radio down as he whispered the lyrics in her ear.

_I know that it might sound more than_

_a little crazy but I believe_

_I knew I loved you before I met you_

_I think I dreamed you into life_

_I knew I loved you before I met you_

_I have been waiting all my life_

_There's just no rhyme or reason_

_only this sense of completion_

_and in your eyes_

_I see the missing pieces_

_I'm searching for_

_I think I found my way home_

Fiona opened her eyes and slowly turned her head to look at him. He smiled as he continued to sing softly to her until she pressed her lips softly to his.

She rolled over, landing on top of him, as she turned his radio off. She kissed him once more before moving next to him again. "Go to sleep."

0o-0o-0o-0o

When Fiona woke up again, Adam was gone. She slipped on one of his shirts and a pair of his boxers before she left his room. As she passed the bathroom, she heard Adam whistling as he took a shower.

She smiled and touched the doorknob, considering joining him. She opened the door and saw his outline through the shower curtain. She hesitated a moment, then stepped back into the hallway and closed the door again.

They'd been dating for nearly eleven months and had been intimate for over five, but she'd never seen him completely naked. She knew Adam hated the way his body looked, over time he'd gotten more comfortable with his lower half, but he still wouldn't let her see his chest. He would rarely let her touch his chest, if he could help it.

She walked back into his bedroom and sat on his bed, waiting for him. After a moment, he walked into the room, wearing a t-shirt and pajama bottoms.

"Get a good look?" he asked.

She blinked. She was certain he hadn't seen her in the bathroom. "I… I didn't really see anything," she said quickly. "Just… just a shadow."

He nodded, then smiled as he sat next to her. "I guess it was bound to happen eventually, right?"

She didn't speak for a moment, looking down as she rung her hands. "When do you think you'll get the surgery?"

"I don't know. I know my mom doesn't want me to get it done until I'm eighteen, but I'd miss too much school with the recovery if I got it done after my birthday. I'll have to wait until next summer."

"That means pushing the wedding back a couple months." She knew he didn't want to get married without having his breasts removed. "We can't really take a honeymoon halfway through the semester."

"Which means waiting until winter break or the next summer." He sighed. When he proposed four months ago, they both knew they were in for a long engagement. They agreed on July 2013, after he graduated high school. At the time, it was a two year wait. Now they were talking about adding another year.

"There's a surgeon in New York, Dr. Bishop," she began slowly. "He specializes in gender reassignment surgeries. He's good. On his website he has pictures of the surgeries and after a few months you can barely see the scars."

He smiled. "You did your research, huh?"

"Yeah. He's one of the best in North America, if not the world."

"Great. And how much longer are we gonna have to wait for him? If he's as good as you say he is…"

"I… I actually called him." He quickly looked at her. "It was before… we broke up. He said he had some openings this summer."

"I just said my mom won't let me get it done yet."

"So we'll talk to her about it. She can't make you put it off forever. If you have the opportunity to go to an amazing surgeon, I don't see how she could say no."

He let out a breath and looked at the wall. "You know how bad I want this, Fiona, but…"

"It's scary," she finished for him, taking one of his hands. "I know. But it can't do any harm to meet with him, right?"

He slowly turned his head to look at her before she continued.

"You can come to New York during winter break and have a consult with him."

He sighed, then nodded slowly. "How soon do you think he can meet with us?"

To be continued…

AN: for those of you who don't recognize the song from the beginning of the chapter, it's called "I Knew I Loved You" by Savage Garden. I heard it on the radio the other day after not hearing it for about ten years and Adam and Fiona popped into my mind.


	21. Chapter 21

**The Way Back to You**

**Chapter 21**

"Adam, the last time you sat us down like this, you told us you got engaged," Audra said, looking at her younger son. "Since I know no one's pregnant, what's wrong?"

Adam sighed and looked at Fiona, who was standing next to him. "There's a doctor in New York who does gender reassignment surgeries," she began slowly.

"I saw his website," Adam added. "There's post-op pictures of his surgeries. He's amazing."

"Adam could have an opportunity to get chest surgery done this summer."

Audra sighed. "We talked about this."

"I know," he said softly. "But now we're talking about one of the best surgeons in the world."

"Kitchen," his mother said, standing up. "Now."

"No." Adam stood where he was, holding onto Fiona's hand. "You can say whatever you need to say in front of Fiona."

"Adam," Omar said warningly.

"Go," Fiona whispered. "I'll be upstairs."

He nodded and kissed her cheek quickly before she walked away. He turned back to his parents.

"Adam, we talked about this," Audra said. "We don't have the money right now. Not with Drew going to university next year and…"

Adam shook his head. "Fiona said she'll pay for it."

"Of course she did." Audra rolled her eyes. "How long are you going to be riding her coat tails?"

"What? I'm not… she wants this for me, Mom. She wants me to be happy."

"And the way she makes you happy is by throwing her money around?"

"No! She's not throwing anything around. She knows we can't afford it and…"

"We're not a charity case, Adam."

He blinked. "Why are you twisting everything I say around? There's this saying, what's hers is mine."

"That's true for married people."

"We're engaged. Close enough."

"Oh, really, Adam. Don't get me started on your engagement to that girl."

He crossed his arms. "What? What about it?"

"Let's start with that ring, the one I noticed she no longer wears."

"She took it off when we broke up and…"

"How exactly did you pay for that ring, Adam? You hardly have ten dollars to your name."

"Declan paid for it," he mumbled. "I'm paying him back."

"Of course. Another Coyne proving their worth."

Adam rolled his eyes.

"You are not ready to be married, Adam."

"Isn't that kind of up to me and Fiona?"

Audra sighed. "If you want your marriage to end in divorce, be my guest. Don't say I didn't warn you."

He shook his head. "We aren't gonna get divorced."

"You've hardly known that girl a year and…"

"Fiona!" he yelled. "Her name is Fiona! Use her name."

Audra simply rolled her eyes. "You cannot promise yourself to _Fiona_ after only a year."

"I can. And I did. And we're not gonna get divorced. I want to spend the rest of my life with her. It's that simple."

"Well, I can tell you, it's not."

Adam rolled his eyes. "We're not you and my dad. I'm not gonna leave her with a five year old to run off with my secretary." He knew it was a low blow, bringing up her failed marriage to his biological father, who went to work one day and never returned. However, at the moment he didn't care.

"Go to your room," Omar told him.

Adam opened his mouth then closed it again, unable to form words.

"Get out of my sight, Adam," Audra said. "Right now."

Adam slowly turned and walked up the stairs to his room. Fiona was on his bed.

"You look exhausted," she noticed as he closed the door.

He sighed and sat next to her. "It seems like every time I try to talk to my mom about something that involves you, we end up fighting."

She nodded. "I heard the yelling."

"Yeah. It was definitely a proud moment for me." He slowly turned his head to look at her. "My mom doesn't think we should get married."

She nodded again. "I heard. My mom pretty much said the same thing."

"Do… do you want to wait?"

"I want to marry you, Adam," she told him. "I've never wanted anything more."

He smiled. "That's good to know."

She put her arms around his neck, propping her chin on his shoulder and kissing him softly on the cheek.

"Fi, you know I'm not doing this because of your money, right?"

"I know. But we wouldn't be talking about getting married if I didn't have money."

"That's not true," he said quickly.

She nodded slowly. "It is. We might be talking about going to university together, maybe living together. We wouldn't seriously be planning a wedding."

He shook his head. "No."

"Adam, think about it. If I didn't have money, we wouldn't have a leg to stand on if we were on our own."

"What are you trying to say?" he asked, his voice low.

"I'm not… I'm not saying anything. I'm just trying to see things from their point of view. Really, if someday our child wanted to get married right out of high school, would you be perfectly fine with it?"

He shrugged. "If they're happy…"

"Adam, really."

"Ok, maybe I wouldn't be overjoyed but I'd accept it. It's their decision. Just like this is ours."

"Really? You'd be fine with it?"

He sighed and turned to look at her. "What answer will make you happy, Fiona? Seriously, what do you want me to say?"

"I just want you to be honest with me."

"I was being honest. Why is that not good enough for you? It seems like I can't do anything right anymore. I mean, I do something to make you happy but it pisses my mom off."

"Adam," she sighed, touching his back, he quickly moved away from her. "It's ok.

"You don't want to get married," he said quietly, looking at the wall.

"I do," she told him. "I told you, there's nothing I want more."

"But?"

"But… good things come to those who wait."

"Perfect," he mumbled, laying on the bed, turning his back toward her.

"Why are you mad?"

He groaned and turned onto his back so he was looking at her again. "Why do you suddenly want to wait to get married?"

"I just… I think it might be a good idea. You can get a couple years of university under your belt and your surgeries will probably be all done by then."

"So that's what this is about? You don't want to marry me until I'm physically a guy?"

She blinked and shook her head. "What? No, Adam, I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to," he whispered, turning away from her again.

"Adam."

"Just go to sleep, Fiona."

To be continued…


	22. Chapter 22

**The Way Back to You**

**Chapter 22**

Fiona rolled over, her arm falling onto Adam's side of the bed. He was gone. She opened her eyes as she ran her hand over the cool, slightly wrinkled sheet.

She moved onto his side of the bed, laying against his pillow. She inhaled deeply, savoring the smell of Adam's Axe bodyspray and peppermint on the pillow.

She slowly got out of his bed and went to his closet, where her suitcase was. She hadn't started packing yet, she had planned to be in town for one more day and wanted to put off packing until she absolutely had to, but now she wasn't so sure she wanted to stay.

She and Adam had gone to sleep early. Neither of them apologized after their fight and instead of kissing goodnight as they normally did, they kept their backs to each other all night.

She put her suitcase on the bed and began packing her clothes. She sighed, Holly J's flight to Connecticut was leaving in a few hours, but Fiona would have to catch a connecting flight from New Haven to New York. She would be on a plane all day and that was the last thing she wanted.

She didn't want to call her father to send the jet for her. She'd have to explain to her parents why she was home early.

She wondered if Brandon and Nate were back from visiting Nate's family in Wisconsin. She picked up her cell phone and dialed Nate's number, holding it to her ear as it rang.

Adam walked into the room, Fiona's back was to him as she waited for Nate to answer. He glanced at her suitcase, then back to her. "Going somewhere?"

She jumped when she heard his voice. She turned around, hanging up her phone as it went to voicemail. "Yeah, I was calling to see if Brandon could send his plane to come get me."

"You want to leave?"

"You don't want me to?"

He shook his head and moved toward her, reaching out to touch her, but stopped just before he did and let his arm fall back to his side. "Don't," he said simply.

She sighed. "Adam, every time we're together lately, we end up fighting."

He opened his mouth then closed it again before shaking his head. She was right, but he didn't want them to break up. Not again. "Fiona, please. Can we just talk about it?"

"Oh, now you want to talk?" she said, more bitterly than she intended.

He looked down and sighed. "Please," he whispered. "I know I was a jerk last night but… I love you, Fi."

She smiled, slowly closing the distance between them. "I love you too. You know I do. And you know I want to marry you, right?"

He nodded. "Some day."

"Adam, if I could, I'd be your wife right now."

He smiled. "Really?"

"Really. I can't wait to marry you."

"Then why do you want to?" he asked, his voice low.

"Because, there's gonna be at least a thousand guests at our wedding. I'd like your parents to be among them."

"A thousand? Really?"

She nodded. "It's kind of a big deal. There's gonna be dignitaries from almost every country in the world there."

He sighed, sitting down on his bed. "Here I was thinking our wedding would be about us."

"It will be," she told him, quickly sitting next to him. "There's just gonna be a lot of people watching."

He rubbed his eyes, getting a head ache just thinking about it. He was never one to enjoy being in front of an audience, especially on what should be the best day of his life. "We can't just… elope?"

"Alright, would you like to tell my mother that?"

He groaned. "Perfect."

She took his hand, a tiny smile on her lips. "When we're up there saying our vows, nothing else in the world will matter. Everyone will disappear, except us."

He smiled. "Yeah, until Eli farts. His smell is omnipresent."

"It doesn't matter," she declared. "All that matters is us."

He looked at her. She often baffled him, how she ignored mean comments said right to her face and never seemed to let anything faze her. How she could so easily forgive him when he'd been a jerk just hours before.

How she could so easily calm him.

"I love you," he whispered softly.

She smiled and kissed him gently. "Do me a favor?"

"Anything."

"Grow your hair back out before the wedding," she told him, touching his short hair.

He ran one hand through his hair. He'd cut it off shortly after their breakup and he was surprised it took her this long to bring it up. "Don't like it?" he teased.

"No, you look good. I just miss your adorable bedhead." He smiled and rolled his eyes. "And I miss running my hands through it."

To be continued…

AN: Adam's new hair cut was mentioned briefly back in chapter 15, for those confused about what they were talking about at the end because it was kind of a blink and miss it reference. I meant to mention it in an earlier chapter, but there was so much fighting going on between chapters 16 and 21, there was really no place to throw this conversation in.


	23. Chapter 23

**The Way Back to You**

**Chapter 23**

Adam smiled as Fiona leaned her head against his shoulder as they watched a movie on his couch. He pulled her closer, kissing the top of her head softly.

They had the house to themselves for the day, thankfully his father and Drew understood how much they needed to spend some time alone and, after some urging from Omar, Audra finally agreed to go out for the day. Fiona was leaving early the next morning and Adam was happy to be able to spend time with her uninterrupted.

After spending most of the morning in his bedroom, Adam and Fiona finally emerged and he made her breakfast. By early in the afternoon, they curled up on his couch and began watching movies.

When she pulled out a Robert Pattinson movie for them to watch, he rolled his eyes. When he saw Claire from Lost show up on screen, he perked up slightly which made her laugh.

Halfway through the movie, he heard her sniffle. He put a finger under her chin and tilted her head so he could look at her. "Why are you crying?"

"I know how it ends," she said simply.

He kissed her forehead softly and wiped away a tear. "I get to pick the next movie."

"And what movie would that be? Transformers?"

He shook his head. "I was thinking Say Anything." He laughed when she raised her eyebrows. "What? You know I have a soft spot for movies from the 80s."

"I know. But I always thought you meant the original Batman or Star Wars or Indiana Jones."

"I see those enough by myself," he told her, shrugging one shoulder.

"Or we can just forget the movies," she suggested.

"And do what?" he asked, before it dawned on him when she meant. "Oh." He smiled. "Yeah, we could do that."

She smiled and kissed him. She began leaning forward, but he countered her and gently pushed her onto the couch until he was laying half on top of her. Slowly, his hand moved to her stomach.

She gasped softly when his fingers slipped into the waist of her pants, tearing her mouth from his. He froze, but didn't move his hand. "What?"

"We shouldn't do this here," she told him.

"Why not?" He kissed her neck softly. "No one's gonna be home for hours."

She bit her bottom lip when he pulled back to look at her. He wasn't going to continue unless she wanted him to, but he left his hand on her stomach, caressing it softly. She had to admit, it would be nice to change things up a bit. She loved being with him, in the moment, the setting didn't matter to her but his bed was getting a bit boring.

Finally, she smiled. "Keep going."

He kissed her again and reached inside her panties to touch her.

She moaned against his mouth. No matter how many times they did this, she would never get used to how good Adam's fingers felt against her.

There was only one thing that felt better.

He seemed to read her mind, because suddenly he broke their kiss and began removing her pants. He slowly pushed her shirt up to kiss her stomach before he ran his hands up her thighs, slowly parting them.

He kissed the inside of her right thigh softly before he draped her leg over his shoulder. Finally, his lips met her other set of lips. She gasped softly as he licked her and moved two fingers inside of her.

The front door opened and closed, something they were only vaguely aware of in the moment.

"Um…"

Adam's brother voice made them both open their eyes quickly. Drew was standing with his back to them. Adam separated himself from her and threw himself over her to cover her, but he knew Drew probably already got an eyeful.

"What are you doing here?" Adam demanded. "I thought you were gonna spend the night at Bianca's."

"She got sick. Sorry."

"Well, we're kind of in the middle of something."

"Yeah. Sorry," Drew said again.

Adam stared at his brother for a moment, who had turned around and was now looking at Fiona. "Leave!"

"Right," Drew mumbled. He began walking away, not taking his eye off of her.

Adam briefly considered getting up and chasing Drew, but if he did nothing would be covering Fiona. Finally, the older boy disappeared up the stairs.

Adam sighed and looked apologetically at his girlfriend. She groaned, her head falling onto a throw pillow.

"Sorry," he said. "I didn't think he'd be home."

"Can you get my pants, please?"

He picked her pajama bottoms and panties off the floor. He moved off of her as she got dressed. "Are you ok?" he asked softly.

She let out a quick, humorless laugh. "I'm fine. Your brother just saw me half naked, but I'm fine."

"Maybe he didn't see anything," he said, shrugging.

"Adam, please." She stood to pull her bottoms on. On the bright side, if there was one, she wasn't completely naked.

He kept his head down. "Sorry," he mumbled.

"It's not your fault," she told him, holding her hand out to him.

He looked at her again, raising his eyebrows.

"Come on."

He took her hand and slowly stood. "Are you taking me to the firing squad?"

She shook her head as she led him away from the couch. "Upstairs," she told him.

He smiled. "You want to?"

She turned to him just before starting up the stairs and kissed him. As she wound her arms around his neck, pulling him closer, it was obvious her desire for him had not waned.

Her lips separated from his, but he quickly grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back, kissing her again.

"Be good," she whispered, pulling away from him again. She took his hand once more and led him up the stairs.

0o-0o-0o-0o

"I should go," Fiona whispered as she stood in Adam's arms near the security gate of the airport.

He nodded and slowly released her. The weekend had gone by far too quickly. Thankfully, his mother let him go to school late so he could go with her to the airport, but with security checkpoints he felt like he was losing an extra hour with her.

"It's only a few weeks until winter break," she reminded him, noticing his frown.

He smiled and nodded again. Three weeks. Just three weeks until they would have almost a whole month together.

"I'll see you then," he said softly.

She placed a gentle kiss on his lips before she stepped away from him. "I'll call you," she told him.

He nodded once more. "See you soon."

Fiona hesitated as she looked at Adam. She wanted so badly to stay with him. To go back to his house and lay down in his bed and just hold each other for hours.

"Go," he said, seeming to read her mind. "I'll be here when you come back."

"You better be." She quickly kissed him again before turning to walk through the gate.

He put his hands in his pockets as he watched her disappear into the crowd. His father walked up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder, making him jump. "Come on," Omar said. "I promised your mother I'd have you in school by eleven."

Adam nodded and turned to follow his father out of the airport. His phone buzzed in his pocket. He smiled as he looked at the text message from Fiona he'd received: _20 days!_

The end

AN: I addressed this earlier, I originally started this story planning for it to span an entire year, but instead the school year will be split into three stories: this one, the next one which will cover winter break, then the fall semester. Then summer and that cycle will repeat itself again. The next story in the series is called Fix You and should be up by Monday.

AN #2: the movie they were watching earlier on is Remember Me, for those wondering. Those who have seen it will probably know why it made Fiona cry.

**The sequel, Fix You has been posted!**


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